I found it promising

I think the latest preview looks great. It's not eye-poppingly gorgeous, but it's not fair to expect any studio to deliver something like that (unless it's Ufotable or something).

I'm accepting of the use of 3D CG in a figure-skating anime. It must be a nightmare to hand-animate such complex choreography and camera moves. Plus, they are animating kids, which most animators are probably not as familiar with.

I believe it's all in the execution. But I can't really tell from the few split-second snippets in the trailer.

My bigger concern is whether the story and the characters will be any good...

@perseii

See that's the issue. The manga IS eye-poppingly gorgeous and absolutely amazing and emotionally poignant. That it's being wasted on money laundering excuse of a sweatshop studio would be like having had the "The Last of Us" or the Fallout tv series be directed by Uwe Boll or Michael Bay or something. It comes off a nothing more than a cynical cash grab while muck racking an amazing series.

@doomrider7 Comparing this preview to Uwe Boll sounds like hyperbole. But to each their own.

I just don't know how much better they can make figure-skating look without investing a massive amount of time and resources. Yuri On Ice was done by MAPPA, and it looked beautiful a lot of times, but it still had some odd-looking sequences. Maybe there's a reason they gave up on the sequel.

I don't know anything about the studio, so I based my opinion on what I can see in this short, cut-up footage that we have. And I don't see anything that's got alarm bells ringing, but my expectations aren't very high either.

I saw on YouTube that Kenshi Yonezu is doing the OP for it called "Bow and Arrrow". I think this will be in good hands. I honestly expect to cry because people following their dreams always makes me tear up. 🥹 Do you think I should read the manga too?

Ehh; the animation is alright. My biggest problem is how much content they cut out/changed from the manga.
Like Inori's mother had way more negative emotions on her face in the manga. Her reaction in the anime look a bit lifeless and made it seem like she was only being naive on her mistreatment toward her daughter. There's also cutting out all of Inori being bullied scenes.

I also don't like how the anime changed Hitomi reactions towards Tsukasa. In the manga it looked like Hitomi only slapped Tsukasa shoulder to stop him from his nonstop positive rambling in front of Inori's mother. While in the anime; the animators make Hitomi straight up sock Tsukasa in the face while they was already alone. Just for "hehe wohman smack dumbo man" shit and giggles.

Also; two of my favorite moments in chp1 were cut out from episode one:

•Inori holding her skates with uncertainty on her face during the beginning narration.

•Tsukasa flashback of him after a competition just standing there frozen with nothing but terror on his face from realizing that his hopes and dreams could all end there.


Other than that, the first episode was alright. However; these few important miscues shows me that the anime will never reach the same greatness as the manga. It's not just an animation problem, the direction is the biggest problem for me. I'll still watch and see how S1 turns out...

Ehh; the animation is alright. My biggest problem is how much content they cut out/changed from the manga.
Like Inori's mother had way more negative emotions on her face in the manga. Her reaction in the anime look a bit lifeless and made it seem like she was only being naive on her mistreatment toward her daughter. There's also cutting out all of Inori being bullied scenes.

I also don't like how the anime changed Hitomi reactions towards Tsukasa. In the manga it looked like Hitomi only slapped Tsukasa shoulder to stop him from his nonstop positive rambling in front of Inori's mother. While in the anime; the animators make Hitomi straight up sock Tsukasa in the face while they was already alone. Just for "hehe wohman smack dumbo man" shit and giggles.

Also; two of my favorite moments in chp1 were cut out from episode one:

•Inori holding her skates with uncertainty on her face during the beginning narration.

•Tsukasa flashback of him after a competition just standing there frozen with nothing but terror on his face from realizing that his hopes and dreams could all end there.


Other than that, the first episode was alright. However; these few important miscues shows me that the anime will never reach the same greatness as the manga. It's not just an animation problem, the direction is the biggest problem for me. I'll still watch and see how S1 turns out...